Volunteer reflection
Welcome to my blog! My name is Idalis Rubio and am a junior at Florida International University. I am enrolled in ENC 3213 and one of our assignments we have to do is volunteer for a non-profit organization. The class took it upon themselves and decided to help raise money for the veterans here on FIU campus. To be completely honest, I was never the type of person who was into volunteering. I did it once before and had a horrible experience. Seeing how happy everyone was to participate in class and set up the event, I sat back and thought "maybe this isn't going to be so bad after all." We came up with ideas of who to raise the money for. The class went from animals, to older people, to children to then veterans. We thought to ourselves how can we benefit and help our university? A student came up with the idea of helping the veterans since veterans day was coming up. We decided to set up a basketball event and raise money. We called it Hoops for Heroes. My professor has an interest in basketball and right away we knew it was the right choice.
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There's so much that goes into volunteering. You have to have a number of people helping, a great organization to raise the money for, gathering any material that you need for the event and making sure people show up. We had a student create a flyer to put around campus so people can know what day it was and when to show up.
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Our goal as a class was to make sure we had people show up and donate to the veterans. We didn't want to put in more money than we were going to make. A classmate of mine decided to do a GoFundMe page so people who weren't able to go to the actual event, can donate online.
We had for teams with four players on each. In order to be in the game they had to donate. It turned out to be a huge success! we raised over $500. Showing up, I didn't think I was going to enjoy it. I had a change of heart and actually had a really fun time taking pictures and seeing the game. I was happy at how involved and excited our veterans were to play basketball. We had two veterans who participated and who had a great time. I felt very happy and relieved that I was able to help someone else in a way. Just seeing them smile and laugh and having a great time really touched my heart. I left the event and had the biggest smile on my face. I felt proud that I helped raise money and put it towards a great cause to help our veterans her on FIU campus. Volunteering really changed my perspective on how not all volunteer experiences need to be bad. Volunteering that day really started my day of right and kept me in a great mood!
Hoops for Heroes video I created.
Hoops for Heroes photography
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Kayaking Experience
Unfortunately, I was unable to attend the Kayaking event we scheduled. One of my biggest fear is water. I can swim and have no problem being in water that is clear. Being in a lake, river, ocean scares me. The class came up with a kayaking even and thought it would be reasonable to charge $15 per person for a couple hours. I'm sure my class mates and the professor along with the other people who tagged along had a great time!
Kayaking Photos
Lack of access to mental health services contributing to the high suicide rates among veterans- Ronald D. Hester
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In the article above, Hester discusses that the returning US veterans have a lack of access to health care. He doesn't understand why they have a problem getting quality care that the veteran's need. Hester states, "Their efforts to gain access to quality psychological health services after multiple deployments are often met significant obstacles.". I agree with what Hester is saying. America should put the veterans or people who come back from war, first when it comes to health care. They should at least have quality health care and everyone should have access to it. Hester talks about how the lack of access to health services may have led to suicidal behavior in young military veterans who had several deployments. Hester also stated, " The rate of suicidal deaths is considerably high in the veteran populations." After reading this, this shocked me. It's sad how we put veterans last and don't make sure that when they come back, they are cared for.
America wants more people to enlist in the army, military, etc but don't want to make sure their health is in great condition when they get back. A lot of veterans need help with their PTSD when they return. This is a reoccurring issue that doesn't go away for some veterans. Some are not able to maintain jobs which makes it hard for them to have an income and pay for health insurance or to go visit a clinic. In Hesters conclusion in the article, he talks about how the VA should develop a type of strategy for mental health screenings and early interventions before they come back home from war. In the article Hester said, "This effort would entail identifying the several signs and symptoms that veterans may display prior to attempting suicide: (1) depression, (2) sleeping poorly, (3) losing weight, (4) telling family members they feel like a burden on their spouse, (5) drinking, and (6) using drugs.". It's hard in today's day to have a high paying job and afford everything you need in life. This is why not a lot of Americans have health care coverage due to the fact that it's expensive and not a lot of people have access to it.
Veteran's Video
CNN's Drew Griffin does an investigation on how some veterans were forced to wait to get care for their problems. Some were dying due to the fact the wait times to see a doctor were to long in VA hospitals. The video discusses how veterans are waiting to get a colonoscopy but due to the fact of some of the veterans waiting for so long, some of them died.
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Drew Griffin states, " There were 280 patients diagnosed with GI malignancies, 52 of which were associated with a delay in diagnosis and treatment." (youtube). One of the patients had to wait four months for his appointment and 10 months for his endoscopy. Since he had to wait so long for his appointments, he was later diagnosed with esophageal cancer. If there wasn't such a long wait time to see a doctor, his cancer would have been treatable. The problem is that the VA expects all these veterans to wait months even years to see a doctor and expect them to still be okay by the time they see the doctor. The VA needs to make some changes and make sure the veterans get the care they need as soon as possible.
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